Joan and Irwin Jacobs, who gave $20 million to the new Central Library nearing completion, are upping their contribution to $30 million, the library fund-raising campaign announced Tuesday.

However, the Jacobses made their latest pledge in the form of a challenge grant, promising to match all gifts up to $10 million in an effort to complete the library's $75 million fund-raising goal.

Library aides place books onto shelves of the new Central Library in East Village. Earlier movers loaded books from the old library onto moving trucks and transported them to the new library, scheduled to open Sept. 28.— Nelvin C. Cepeda / U-T SAN DIEGO

Library aides place books onto shelves of the new Central Library in East Village. Earlier movers loaded books from the old library onto moving trucks and transported them to the new library, scheduled to open Sept. 28.
— Nelvin C. Cepeda / U-T SAN DIEGO

The $185 million library, due to open Sept. 28 at 330 Park Blvd. in downtown's East Village, is being funded primarily from $80 million in redevelopment property taxes and $20 million each from a state library grant and a 20-year lease payment from the San Diego Unified School District for its charter high school located on two floors of the nine-story building.

To bridge the funding gap, the San Diego Public Library Foundation pledged to raise $75 million in private donations -- $60 million for the building and $10 million for operational support. It's collected $60 million in pledges so far and $15 million in a funding guarantee from an anonymous donor.

It is that final $15 million that the Jacobses hope to cover, plus $5 million for program support, after previously giving $15 million for construction and $5 million for five years' worth of operational costs for a building three times bigger than the existing Central Library at 820 E St.

"Obviously, we're getting close to the time for dedication," Irwin Jacobs said in an interview. "Fund raising has done well but it's not complete by any means. We thought this would be a way, perhaps, to encourage people to come along for naming gifts before the dedication, so their names would be up there."

Foundation CEO Jay Hill said 12 other families and individuals have donated $1 million or more, while more than 3,000 people have donated $150 or more for commemorative bricks that are being laid in the library entrance plaza.

He said naming opportunities remain available in the building, from $2,500 for an auditorium chair to $15 million for the auditorium located at the southwest corner of the site at 11th Avenue and K Street.

Katie Sullivan, vice chairwoman of the library foundation, said the Jacobses have been staunch supporters of the long-delayed project.

"I think they saw a need and offered it up," she said of the couple's latest commitment. "It's a very magnanimous gesture on the Jacobses' part and hopefully that will entice people who have been considering doing it. We have quite a few in that category we've been talking to over months and years and this may be the thing that causes them to want to get involved."

Most public libraries built in the U.S. today typically involve bond issues and capital improvement financing by states, counties and cities. But Hill said San Diego's is the only one with such a large proportion of private gifts and no public debt attached.

"This funding model is completely unique," Hill said.

The old Central Library, which opened in 1954, resulted from a $2 million voter-approved bond measure passed in 1949. Its predecessor, on the same site from 1902 to 1952,came about from a $60,000 grant from industrialist and library lover Andrew Carnegie in 1899.